CD Review: The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy – Big Kenny
14 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on CD Review: The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy – Big Kenny
Big Kenny – The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy (Bigger Picture, 2009)
I have heard it said that you get to know an artist only through his art. This seems to be especially true of Big Kenny. His new CD ‘The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy’ is basically a grand tour of his big heart.
The disc opens with Blackfoot chants and drums, leading into first track ‘Wake Up’ and continues with lead-off single ‘Long After I’m Gone’. Its lyrics may be uncomplicated and the message (‘And all these memories are all I’ve got/But the love I leave and my wildest dreams will live on/Long after I’m gone’) may not be new but no one embodies the spirit of it better.
In the press notes, Big Kenny calls ‘Less than Whole’ a “dissertation on forgiveness” and it has some very powerful lyrics indeed. It is a real stand-out track and the vulnerability of the vocals only add to its sincerity.
Though he can produce a ballad (‘Go Your Own Way’), Big Kenny is at his best when cheering on Life and Love, and ‘Quiet Times’ has plenty of love to go around. Closer ‘Share the Love’ is a much-needed antidote to today’s prevailing cynicism. ‘Free Like Me’ celebrates artistic freedom, the banjo-drenched ‘Be Back Home’ is a love letter to life on Kenny’s family farm in his native Virginia. Southern rocker ‘Happy People’, not surprisingly, is all about simple, but not simple to find, happiness.
Big Kenny has delivered an album as colorful and diverse as his wardrobe. A few unnecessary frivolities, like the overly screechy end to the otherwise excellent ‘Drifter’, and the at times far too loud production are pretty much the only flaws.
‘The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy’ is a wonderfully positive album. Big Kenny has seen, in Darfur, some of the worst things human beings can do to each other but he believes in the good in people, in forgiveness, and in Love. After listening to this record, so will you.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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